Video 6:14
Centre Fires

Transcript

LOUISA REBGETZ, PRESENTER: For weeks Northern Territory emergency workers have been battling an outbreak of fire across hundreds of kilometres of Central Australia. While many of the fires have been caused by lightning strikes authorities say some have been deliberately lit. Reinforcements have been brought in from interstate with fire crews from South Australia travelling to the Territory to lend a hand. I spoke with the Regional Controller of the Counter Disaster Committee Michael White earlier today about just how bad the fires are.

LOUISA REBGETZ: Just how bad are the fires in central Australia at the moment?

ACT. CMDR MICHAEL WHITE: We've had unprecedented fires across central Australia for the last six weeks. It's been a very long term event. Interestingly over the last, for the same period last year they had 72 call-outs for fires by the fire service, this year we've had nearly 400 so it's a significant increase, unprecedented experience down here this year.

LOUISA REBGETZ: You flew over the fires yesterday, tell us what you saw?

ACT. CMDR MICHAEL WHITE: It was an experience; certainly I didn't really get a full appreciation of the fires just looking at them on maps. Flying over yesterday you could see how vast the area is and see the significant loss of country to pastoralists and obviously into traditional lands from Indigenous people and also international parks. One of the big things is that it's such a vast area of the Northern Territory and many, many fires are in inhospitable country and it's very difficult to get in there and deal with them at earlier stages.

LOUISA REBGETZ: How are these fires starting - are they being deliberately lit?

ACT. CMDR MICHAEL WHITE: Look there's certainly some of these fires have started by, this week we've had fires that have started during a storm that blew in through the south of Yulara that caused at least 3 or 4 fires we're aware of through lightning strikes and also there are, have been reports of fires that have been lit over time.

LOUISA REBGETZ: How are your investigations going into those fires that have been deliberately lit?

ACT. CMDR MICHAEL WHITE: Certainly we have made a number of arrests during the time, this week we arrested a man in Imanpa for lighting a fire and also a woman in Alice Springs for lighting a fire in the industrial area in some vacant land.

LOUISA REBGETZ: The fires have been burning for weeks, what's it been like for the crews on the ground?

ACT. CMDR MICHAEL WHITE: It's been a massive exercise. The reason we really came together and formed a emergency operations centre was because of the extent of the fires, the number of people involved and also the resources that we had we're completely stretched. We had 18 people from South Australia come up, they brought four 3,000 litre tankers and their crews, plus a command team as well as some incident management staff who are providing valuable assistance to our resources here.

LOUISA REBGETZ: Many of these fires are a long way from Alice Springs, have lives been endangered? What about people travelling on the roads?

ACT. CMDR MICHAEL WHITE: Look we've had to obviously over this week particularly had to shut the Luritja Road, the Ernest Giles Road and obviously other roads around the Finke area. That had obviously put people at risk at times the fires so we've had to secure the roads to prevent people travelling through the risky areas because we were fearful of their safety that the most appropriate action was to close the roads and keep people in one place so we could be sure they were safe and also allow us to do our duties in the fire grounds without any risk to the public.

LOUISA REBGETZ: Have tourists visiting the area been cooperative?

ACT. CMDR MICHAEL WHITE: At Kings Creek yesterday we had a good community meeting with all the people that had been there for the last few days with the road closure and they we're very thankful that we opened the road yesterday but appreciative of all the work that we've done across the agencies to protect them and protect the country.

LOUISA REBGETZ: Are the fires having any impact on transport services in and out of Alice Springs?

ACT. CMDR MICHAEL WHITE: Fortunately the airport never was closed due to the fire, smoke haze. There was some restrictions on flights in and out of Alice Springs but nothing commercial. The big area that we had some concerns with was the fires that were burning down the railway corridor - that held up a couple of freight trains and also the Ghan. That now is fully operational again and the railway corridoor is open.

LOUISA REBGETZ: There's been a fire at the Alice Springs tip. I understand that's now under control?

ACT. CMDR MICHAEL WHITE: Yeah that fire's now fully out. It started a couple of weeks ago and it did cause some concern because it was in the refuse area where the recycling of mulch is so that fire was very intensive and hot but obviously contained within the tip area.

LOUISA REBGETZ: There's been a lot of smoke around Alice Springs from the fires - has there been any impact on people's health?

ACT. CMDR MICHAEL WHITE: Look I understand there has been some impact. The Department of Health has put out a lot of warnings and we've also put warnings out to people who have ongoing health conditions that does, is affected by their breathing and as a result we've asked people to remain indoors and also restrict travel to only essential travel to ensure that their health is maintained.

LOUISA REBGETZ: Looking ahead what are you expecting in the coming days?

ACT. CMDR MICHAEL WHITE: We've got eight main areas where fires are burning. Generally those fires are now under control and we're continuing to manage them by insuring that we have appropriate containment lines in to ensure we can keep them within the fire ground that currently exists.

LOUISA REBGETZ: Acting Commander Michael White thank you so much for talking to us.